Bloomberg TalksVirginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, discusses former President Donald Trump’s stance on China, US dollar strength, and the state of the US economy with Bloomberg's Annmarie Hordern
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Donald Trump has called him prime Time. It's the governor from Virginia, Glen Younkin, thank you for joining me here at Milwaukee.
Good morning. You know.
I have to say that the Republican National Convention, as we move into day three, has been a real statement. It's been in a statement about coming together in excitement. And when President Trump came into the arena on Monday night and it's the first time that everyone had really seen him since the assassination attempt, the place erupted and it was emotional, and I think it does represent not only confidence in the America that he built last time, but the one he can build again.
So would you go work for.
Him because he says he'd love to have you on the team.
Well, it's an incredibly humbling sentiment. Let's be serious right now. The job is to win, and Virginia's in play, which is amazing to say. Joe Biden won Virginia by ten points last time, and then we came back in one two the next year and all the polls have Virginia locked up tight. So I'm going to go to work to one be a great governor in Virginia and then, second of all, make sure that we do everything we can for Donald Trump to win.
So is there a sense if you flip Virginia and it goes red, you would join this administration?
If you were asked to serve your.
Country under President Donald Trump, would you join?
There are so many ifs there. Let's just start with the work at hand.
And I'm a pretty basic businessman who's become a governor, which is set objectives and let's go meet them.
And we set the objectives.
In Virginia to turn around Virginia's job growth and economy. And we've used all of the tools that we know work. We have had five billion dollars of tax relief, we've streamlined regulations in a big way.
We've built a great.
Workforce, and we've invested in our infrastructure. And you know, we were just ranked the top place for business. And that's because we really are the top place for business. So my job's really straightforward. Set objectives, let's go meet them. One of our objectives is to make sure that our congressional candidates win in Virginia, that we extend our majority in Washington, and to help Donald Trump win Virginia.
You mentioned your business at community. You are part of the business world, a head of Carlisle. What I was hearing is that a lot of individuals on Wall Street well calling the former president, asking him to pick someone like you.
And setting him with JD.
Vance, someone that sometimes unnerves Wall Street. He's a protectionist individual, he's a populist. He's calling for tariffs. One of your biggest importers coming from China, how do you think Virginia would handle, say, sixty percent tariffs on China and a ten percent tariff ring around the United States.
Let's first back up.
I think one of the things that President Trump has been clear about and we know in the business community, is that free trade really doesn't exist because we've given unfettered access to the US market, and so many other countries actually don't provide reciprocal access to their markets. And let's be clear, US companies do not have access on an unfettered basis to the Chinese market, and yet they expect to have unfettered access to the US market. And so we've got to stand up strong for the United States. On top of that, China is not just a rival. They're trying to dominate the world and they're trying to do it at the expense of the United States. They use economic imperialism to do it, They saber rattle, and on top of that, they use every ounce to infiltrate every bit of the US economy to understand.
How they can influence it.
What that has translated to is a real recognition that we need to not only protect ourselves against China, but we need to fight back. And so the tariffs that President Trump imposed on China when he struck the first Chinese Deal, we're critical in order to rebalance an unbalanced situation with China and companies that are doing business in China. Take Ford for example. I mean, here's Ford, who has a big market share in China, and then they want to build an electric vehicle battery plant in the United States. And I can guarantee you that the Chinese government put immense pressure on them to use cattle technology in.
The United States. And now we're seeing.
That cattle technology is being banned by the US military because they're worried about the influence from the Chinese Communist Party. I mean, this is the way China does business, and we've got to make sure that we are.
We're fighting back.
Most economists those say tariffs are inflationary. So do you think that's the right solution to this problem? You don't think is currently free trade on the marketplace?
Yeah, I do have to begin with I have lots of economist friends and work with them for a long time.
And the economists aconomists are.
One hundred dollars per every household. They ran all the numbers.
Well, I know, people ran lots of numbers at the beginning of the year and said there's gonna be five rate cuts this year in the United States.
Come on, let's be real.
At the end of the day, I believe that President Trump will use tariffs in order to make sure that trade is reciprocal and fair, fair for the United States, fair for US businesses, and fair for the US worker, And that's really important.
He also thinks the dollars too strong. Do you think we have a currency problem?
Well, I think the first issue we have with our currency reflect the lack of strength, the weakness that the Biden Harris administration has projected economically around the world. And a weak America invites a strong China, and China has moved right in around the world economically, and all of a sudden you hear once again all of these threats that the dollar will not will not play the role that it has internationally going forward that it has historically. That's a real challenge to the US and it's a real challenge to our economic future.
So I think that.
Part of the reason why the electorate in Virginia around the country are excited about President Trump coming back into office is strength, economic strength, national security, strength, border strength.
They're tired of a week America. They want a strong America.
But how do you think he actually fixes that dollar problem.
Well, first of all, having an economy that actually works.
But that might mean a stronger US doll Like a lot of people are looking at what these potential policies could be, especially protections trade policies, and they would say, looks like it's going to be a strong dollar. Well, I need to get treasury, need to you know, maybe buy other foreign currency.
Well let's go back to core basics.
A strong US economy that does not have runaway inflation, which is what the Biden Harris administration unleashed on America.
Unprecedented inflation. We have seen it for decades.
That drives a dollar up because interest rates have to follow. And Jay Pous done a really good job combating inflation.
Let's be real. The beginning of the year there is huge.
Pressure for five rate cuts, and of course inflation was nowhere near contained, and he's done a really good job maintaining discipline. We've got to get inflation down that make sure that it is, and then rates will come down and rates will drive the currency. And that's a strong, high growth, low inflation economy that is not allowing inflation to drive too strong a dollar.
Well, you said earlier than market was expecting five.
Now the market inspects.
One or two to one of them likely before the US election. Do you think Jay Powell, if he is to cut rates for US election, is being political.
No, I don't. I think Jay is doing his job. And as we have seen.
That the Biden economy really falter, Jay's going to react and he's going to do what he needs to do. And so no, Jay's not political at all. Jay's doing a great job.
Jd.
Vance is the VP pick. I want to give you a quote of what he put on his campaign website, black and White before he ran for the Senate.
We're going to.
Raise taxes on companies that ship jobs overseas and use their money to fund anti American radical movements. Does corporate America have a place in this Republican Party.
Well, first of all, let me begin with JD's nomination. I think he's going to be a great running mate for the president, and I think he's going to do a great job as vice president. And let's be clear, it is Donald Trump's agenda, and Donald Trump is going to set the agenda on the future of our economy and how we are going to build a rip roaring economy just like the one we had in his previous administration. And yes, the business community clearly is excited about this. Listen, the stock market ran away over the last few days as it's become more clear that Trump is leading and has a better than likely chance of being elected as president. I also think it reflects the catastrophe that Joe Biden has been over the last couple of weeks coming out of the debate for the Democratic Party. I mean, there's chaos on their side and wall streets and the markets and business seem to really support this.
Because the market's running away.
That's really exciting, I think for the opportunity to build a strong economy, a strong America, and to put us back where we belong, which is leading as opposed to really defending weakness all the time.
Besides Elon Musk, this week, though no Fortune, one hundred CEO has come out and publicly linked themselves to back former president in donations.
Do you think that's a.
Problem, Well, let's just start with Elon Musk. And you can't just dismiss Elon Musk. This week he made an enormous statement one hundred.
There's ninety nine others one one hundred and eighty million dollars in order to support grassroots ground game efforts to elect Donald Trump in seven battleground states.
I mean, this is a giant statement.
And I think we'll see over the course of the next three and a half months as it becomes very clear that the momentum that we're seeing today can be maintained.
That the business community does want.
A strong economy, they want a strong leader in Washington, they want America to be strong overseas, they want a secure border.
We need to combat China, not not play ca China. And this is what Donald Trump's going to represent, and this is why I think American business will be very pleased to have him back as president.
He spoke to Trump before you gave your speech at the R and C at the Convention Center. What did he say to you?
Well, I called him on Sunday after the assassination attempt. And let's just be clear here.
He was millimeters away from a very different Sunday than what we had. And I do think thank God for his presence there because evil was unleashed in Pennsylvania.
And he said that he was changing his speech, and he said he.
Was encouraging everyone else to do the exact same thing, to really reflect on unity, unity in the Republican Party and unity across America. And this is the opportunity we have, which is to bring people together around a common vision, a common vision that unleashes the land of opportunity once again, as opposed to one where the most Americans have been so concerned economically, can they write the tuition check?
Can they retire?
As runaway inflation has really eroded so much of their hard work.
Inflation has come down, but certainly it is top of mind for a lot of American voters.
Wrote was price, We've got to be real.
Inflation has come down from highs that were unprecedented, and it is the cumulative effect of inflation that has made prices so high. Grocery prices up thirty percent, gas up forty percent. For the average American family, this is really, really tough, and prices aren't going down, they're just going up less less quickly.
That's correct, Glenn Youngkin, thank you so much for your time. That was, of course, the governor from Virginia, Glen Youngkin, who Donald Trump says his prime time.
And would love him.
Jonathan and his administration
